The Devil's Best Friend
by greenpidge
Summary: Notch is god and Herobrine is the devil, but titles aren't important. How did Herobrine really come to be the monster everyone knows and fears? and can a good friend save the demigod from himself? Angst, adventure, and hurt/comfort, but there are only 2 genre slots. Rated T for violence, gore, and some language. Rewritten version.
1. Notes

**A.N.: These are some notes I made on how my version of Minecraftia works since everyone has a different interpretation of the world, you don't have to read them if you don't care about this sort of thing.**

**Warning! This chapter may contain useless information, viewer digression is advised.**

Notes on my Minecraftia.

Items: The first thing to know is the difference between items and objects. Items are your standard Minecraft items, weapons, blocks, potions, etc., in the classic 8-bit style. Objects are what you and I are used to seeing. Many items can be turned into objects through magic, this allows a wide variety of things to be made, such as clothing and weapons and tools that do not exist in the Minecraft world.

Religion: Like this world Minecraftia has a variety of religions. The most prominent of which is the central church of Notch, which is far more popular than our Christian church. Many cult groups exist within a variety of races.

Gods: Though Notch is a god, he does _not_ have the power to change what is into something else, that ability belongs strictly to Herobrine, who does not have the ability to create or destroy like Notch.

Magic: Magic is the most important force in Minecraftia. They rely on magic like we rely on physics, in some cases even for basic bodily function.

Blocks: All structures are made of blocks, no odd shapes or bits of rubble and debris here, just blocks. (Mobs, including humans, are not block style.)

Notes on Herobrine:

Differences between fans: I personally have never seen so much variation in the appearance of a character who already had a cannon appearance. Hero is across the board from unnaturally ripped to nearly scrawny, central European to pail Caucasian. The differences also include whether or not he has a beard even exactly what his eyes look like. His weapon of choice is either a sword or a pickax depending on just how crazy one pictures him. If he's all nuts all the time, he has a pick, while a more articulate Herobrine carries a sword, the weapon is either iron or diamond. His origins are also widely spread. Some say he came from the aether, others say he came from the nether, and some say the overworld. His relations with each are scattered to say the least. He is often seen as being of either the overworld or the nether, the end is rarely dragged into this. Of course since in the cannon he really has no personaliy, Herobrine has been pegged at every level of sanity and formality.

My fandom: I see Herobrine as looking mostly like his cannon, only human in shape and with slightly longer hair. To me he does hunt humans, though his reasons vary. The rest you'll just have to figure out by reading the next few chapters.


	2. First Encounter

**A.N.: This is the first chapter of the rewritten "The Devils Best Friend", I really hope it's better than the last version. Sorry I sat on my hands for so long, I managed to get a friend to proof read this but they never got back to me on it.**

An eight year old boy with tan skin and dark hair pretended to hit mobs with his stone sword, his first stone sword. His father had given it to him as a sort of coming of age gift. When he turned twelve he would receive his first iron sword, and when his was sixteen he would be old enough to go out into the world on his own, as was tradition. But until then, he would have to content himself with slashing at the air and imagining that he was clearing a path through hordes of zombiepigmen for his loyal party as they conquered the nether.

"Steve, time to come inside now." called a woman from the small woodland house only ten blocks away. The sun was setting and mobs would start coming out of hiding at any moment.

"Coming, Mommy!" the boy called back. He held up his sword in front of his face and marveled at how it simply vanished with a little 'pop' as he willed it into his inventory. He had only recently learned how to store and equip items with the little magic he, and all humans, possessed. Item magic was the most basic of human magics, and allowed the placement of blocks and the ability to turn items into objects and back. It was item magic that made humans different from Notch's other mobs, such as creepers and zombies.

A creeper came out early and set its sights on Steve. It was his duty as a creeper to kill as many humans as possible, and this one looked too young to have children of its own, by killing it he could stop other humans from being born. He waited behind a tree as the older female human went back into the abomination it called home. 'Now!' The creeper ran out from behind its tree and stood between the boy and its house. The human screamed and ran, typical foolish human behavior, the woods would provide it no shelter. The human ran blindly away from its doom, but was young and panicked, easy pray. Soon its mere two legs would give out, so long as it did not stumble first… It tripped over its own foot.

Steve covered his face with his arms on instinct, all he could think to do was protect his face and cry in sheer terror as the creeper blew up with a cry of "GLORY!" in the ancient tongue of the creeper. The force of the explosion slammed the boy into a tree, but he didn't realize it, he had blacked out before he even hit the oak log block. He lay there, half dead, for a good thirty minutes before he got really lucky.

* * *

"Steve?!" Susana shouted into the woods. She had heard her son scream, but by the time she had made it back outside he was gone. "Steve?! Steve where are you?!"

There was no reply.

She ran back inside, fearing only the worst as a list of overworld mobs and their highest recorded stats ran through her mind at efficiency V speeds. "Jack! Steve's missing!" Came the panicked mother to her husband.

In a matter of seconds they were ready for whatever mob that had the audacity to get between them and their baby. A very wise enderman vanished when he saw the two in full enchanted armor, and the murderous looks they gave a not so wise zombie.

* * *

Steve woke up felling more groggy than he ever had before, but otherwise, fine. He vaguely remembered what had happened before he had passed out, and even his fuzzy mind could comprehend that he shouldn't be alive, and that if he was, he should be in great pain. But as he thought this, he found only a dull ach in his upper back where he had hit that tree. After several minutes of what could be called thought, Steve realized that he was moving, but not of his own accord. The ground he faced passed beneath him, but he couldn't feel his legs moving. Then it occurred to him that the pair of legs that were moving were not his, as he was oriented the wrong way to them. This meant that someone was carrying him over their shoulder, but who?... A person in a blue shirt and blue pants… no wait… a cyan shirt… hm… wasn't Steve wearing the same thing?…

Before Steve could really register it, he had been lain on his own bed in his own home. The man who had put him there stared at Steve for several seconds… or perhaps they were minutes… Notch it was hard to tell. The man had the same tan skin and dark brown hair as Steve, and they were indeed wearing the same outfit, cyan t-shirt, blue jeans and dark gray shoes. But what struck a note in Steve's head were his eyes: solid white, no iris, and no pupil. Steve felt he should know those eyes, despite the fact that he had never seen them in his life… Didn't his mother tell him a story about a man with white eyes?... Steve was too out of it to remember.

The silence was broken by the yelp of a woman and then the war cry of a truly pissed spouse. The man quietly broke a window, threw some sort of dark green sphere, and was gone. Steve fell asleep the second he left.

* * *

As the sun rose, Steve's father hacked and slashed at countless mobs out of pure frustration over the loss of his only son. Steve's mother only cried into her bloodied hands. Steve was nowhere to be found, this almost certainly meant that he was dead, that he had died and his body had despawned.

Jack beheaded a creeper, the last one fool enough to get within thirty blocks of him, and moved over to Susana. "C'mon Sweety, time to head home."

The mother only shook her head violently, still sobbing into her hands.

"C'mon Su', we can look more later, but we should restock on food and weapons." He knew that 'looking' would prove just as useless as it had all night. There wasn't a single block they hadn't searched in the entire biome, and there was no way their eight year old could have made it that far in one night. But it was all too obvious that Susana needed reassurance, so that was what he feebly tried to offer her.

After a moment's pause, She got up and started on a solemn walk home, Jack followed beside her with one comforting hand on her shoulder.

* * *

Susana and Jack were both exhausted, physically and emotionally, but it was no time for rest, at this point they had decided that they would either find Steve, or die trying.

First order of business: food. Susana headed for Steve's room, he kept a 'secret' store of apples under his bed. But when she opened the door she screamed.

Steve awoke with a start as his over exited mother screeched with, albeit mistakable, joy. Jack heard her and came running. "What's wrong!?"

Susana just rushed over and grabbed her son around the neck and proceeded to accidentally squeez the life out of him. "M-mom… air." Steve choked.

Jack gave a relieved sigh, "Where the nether were you boy?"

"Yeah what happened?" Asked Steve's mother, releasing him.

"There was a creeper, and a guy with white eyes carried me home." Steve said simply.

"Uh, white eyes?" Susana was unconvinced that _he_ even existed, much less had gone out, saved Steve from a creeper, and then carried him home.

"Mm-hm." Steve seemed to think nothing of it.

"You must have had a bad dream sweetie." She claimed, in that 'mother knows all' kind of way.

"Oh…" It hadn't really seemed like a dream, but the whole thing had been rather fuzzy, so maybe it was just a dream. But Steve felt he should know that man, he was sure he had heard stories of a white eyed man, what was his name? "Mommy, didn't you tell me Herobrine has white eyes?"

"Well yes, but Herobrine is just a legend sweetheart, he's not really real." Again with the 'mother knows all'.

"Oh…" Oh well, must have been a dream then.


	3. Outside Push

10 years had passed and Steve had grown to become a miner, finding that the heavy swing of a pickax was far more satisfying than that of a sword, and often more rewarding. No one really hired mob slayers out in the middle of nowhere, which was why Steve's parents had taken to selling drops at ludicrous prices.

Steve managed to finally bring his iron pick through the head of the cave spider biting his leg. He was really more worried about the spawner than his leg. Placing torches on every side of the spawner stopped the spontaneous production of cave spiders. Steve weaved his way through the cobwebs that filled the space to a wall. He leaned up against the gray stone and slid down it. "I hate spiders." The ill prepared miner thanked dumb luck for the fact that the cave spider had not poisoned him. The miner stood up and took one last look around the cave. There was a bit of redstone around, but his inventory was full on reddstone, all he had room for was iron and lapis lazuli, not like he needed any more lapis, having three and a half stacks of it already. Seeing nothing of significant value, Steve headed back the way he had come, and had the immense fortune to _not_ run into anything that wanted to kill him. Even at the mouth of the cave he had entered from, there was still at least 70 chunks between him and the safety and comfort of his own home, and the fact that the sun was already setting sure didn't help. This meant that yet another teenage sigh was in order, which came promptly on demand. Steve placed his pick back into his inventory and started on his long walk home. 'Why do I mine so far from home? Because There's only so much under your house and you wanted to find a dungeon so you went exploring. And there was nothing to find, making this little trip completely useless.'

* * *

As the miner moved towards the biome he had built his solitary house in, he was shocked at the incredible lack of hostile mobs he saw, and those he did see never even got close to him, much less attacked. There was something very unnatural about the lack of mobs, first on his way out of that cave, and now in the 40 chunks he had traveled during the night. But knowing just how fickle lady luck could be, Steve chose not to question his good fortune. Time and chunks passed as the miner walked through the woods he knew so well, after a while he heard people shouting. Curiosity and some other feeling told him to follow the sound. Only 10 chunks from his home, Steve saw two men in a small clearing. The first one was tall, even taller than Steve, who had always prided himself at standing a full 1.85 blocks high. He had a thick black beard but was otherwise bald. His outfit consisted of a simple brown t-shirt and jeans, along with a cape with the emblem of Notch embroidered in gold. In the church and bands of holy knights, the color of the sign of Notch a man wore was a mark of his rank. The lowest level was brown, the color of dirt, but the highest rank Steve had ever heard of was light gray, the color of iron, but never gold.

The second man had the same hair and skin color as Steve, as well as the exact same outfit. He even wore his hair the same length, the difference being that this man pushed his hair back, while Steve let his fall in front of his face. The uncanny similarity was shattered by the man's eyes, which were solid white. There was only one being in the world who was said to have such perfect white eyes, and Steve had a vague memory of meeting it. That thing could only be _him_, but at the same time it couldn't be. _He_ wasn't real, just a legend moms told little kids to keep them in bed and out of the nether. He was just a myth, nothing more, nothing but an old story. Not real. But, he was there, and the other person seemed to think he was there too.

"You test my patience brother." The first announced.

"And you test my tolerance for self-absorbed idiots, but didn't you have a point to get to? or was that just my imagination." The second seemed to have very little respect and a smart mouth, a famously bad combination when dealing with high ranking anybodies.

"Humans are not your play things!" Came the first again.

"I know that." said the second coolly.

"Then cease the pointless torment you set upon my people!"

"If you had any interest in what someone other than high priests and of course yourself had to say, I would tell you that I don't just go out and kill the first human I see, that really would be pointless, but since you are "the great and all powerful Notch", you really have no interest do you?"

'Brother', 'Notch'… Notch's brother, Herobrine. If the first man really was Notch, then the white eyed man really must be Herobrine. Steve just watched in awe as Notch, the creator of all things, argued with his little brother Herobrine, the most twisted and evil being to ever live. Apparently, their dispute was comparatively relevant to him.

"I hold interest in what is important. Your twisted scene of entertainment is not."

"I take that offensively." Said Herobrine, crossing his with a smug grin. The demon's face fell and he pulled his arms apart again, instead shoving his hands into his pockets. "If you think you could do a better job without killing off the crazies then be my guest, but I don't have time to deal with your humans. You've got about 13 other mobs you want me looking after, and my top priority is my endermen."

"The elder race of man is of a higher class of being, and therefore must be protected form it's young and foolish adversaries. Should humanity's numbers lessen it is of its own accord." Proclaimed Notch, sounding like he was putting too much effort into trying to use big words to confuse his younger brother… who was apparently the smart one.

"So what you're trying to say is that humans are better than endermen, and I should kill off an entire race of advanced society, all so that yours can wipe itself out."

Notch seemed taken aback by the outstanding accuracy with which Herobrine had guessed his statement's meaning as he worked to cover the stupidity he had just noticed in his own words with a layer of glass. "I- You- Respect your elders!"

"I'm the second oldest thing in the world; when was the last time someone showed me respect?" The smart mouthed demon said, crossing his arms again.

Notch equipped a diamond and took a fighting stance. "Know your place _brother_!"

Herobrine made a kind of throaty sigh that Steve new himself to use when someone insisted he go back into a cave system he knew to have only coal. The sound was most often accompanied by eye rolling, but the miner found it impossible to tell what the demon was doing with his eyes. Said demon equipped an iron sword, and held it backwards. "Fine, let's get this over with."

Notch charger Herobrine, who spun sideways at the last second, and tripped Notch with his foot. The god fell face first into a dirt ledge in that undignified way one would imagine after being sidestepped and tripped at full speed. "By the way, I'm not sure if you know this but, I do have a name. Herobrine? ever heard it? my friends call me Hero?"

Notch stood up and charged again. He leaped a full two blocks into the air and brought his sword down on his brother. Herobrine flipped his sword around quickly and blocked with it, one hand on the hilt, the other supporting the flat side of the blade. The demon was knocked to the ground by the force of the blow. Notch took the opportunity to strike again and Herobrine blocked again, but the inferior iron blade broke. Notch drove his sword into his brother's stomach with speed unmatched by even a skeleton's arrow. Herobrine grunted and equipped an ax, swinging it at Notch. The god jumped back, leaving his sword behind. Herobrine stood and pulled the blade out of his own gut. He unequipped the ax and gave the sword to his right hand. Despite the stance he took, the demigod was obviously in no shape to fight. He held the blood stained sword low, so that it half rested on the ground, his breath was heavy and labored, and his face showed that he was in pain, but he held his ground as Notch approached him. They were motionless for a full twenty seconds before Notch sighed. "Why do you insist on being punished? Don't you realize how much easier things could be?"

"Under what conditions?... I do whatever you say… forever?" Herobrine panted.

Notch seemed angry at how his brother twisted his words. He kicked Herobrine hard in the stomach, landing his foot in the demon's open wound. The kick knocked the demigod back about five blocks. The losing demon let the sword lie as he gasped and coughed, clinging to his abdomen with one hand while the other tried to bush him back to his feet. He only got to his hands and knees before Notch picked his sword up off of the grass, and drove it into his brother's upper back. Herobrine collapsed as Notch turned to walk away, leaving his diamond sword behind again. "May you burn in the nether." The god said before disappearing.

"May you fall… out of the aether." Herobrine muttered to himself.

Steve stepped out from behind his tree. Every level of logic, instinct and common sense told him to run from the creature that had ended so many countless lives and ruined countless more, but a voice in his head told him to venture forward. Not his own voice, which he argued with on a regular basis when making decisions. This voice was foreign, and powerful. So the miner advanced timidly, until he suddenly felt that he was being watched. Steve looked with terror down at the face of the demon Herobrine, and was sure that those solid white eyes were staring at him. There was a pause in which neither the demigod or the mortal moved, instead they simply watched each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Eventually Herobrine tried to stand again, and the felling of being watched left Steve as the demon shut his eyes in pain and effort. Steve took several steps backwards, ready to scream at the top of his lungs at any given moment. But Herobrine only collapsed again as soon as he stood up. The feeling returned and Steve moved forward again, this time feeling slightly more determined to… what was it he wanted to do again? Until now the miner hadn't really thought about why the nether he was approaching the creature of nightmares, but the voice answered his question for him. _'To help him. He can't hurt you.'_

'Right, I should help him. He's hurt, so I should help him.' Now that Steve had a directive and assurance that that _thing_ was in no shape to kill him, he found it slightly easier to move towards the demon.

Steve knelt down beside Herobrine, who glared at him menacingly. Steve's hands shook as he carefully pulled the blade out, and the feeling of the demon's gaze faded.

* * *

Herobrine watched as a human approached him. What could a human possibly want with him… other than vengeance. But he didn't look like the 'FOR MY FAMILY HONER!' kind of guy, more like just some normal kid, and most normal kids were stupid, but this one had to be a real first class idiot to just walk up to him. Herobrine tried to stand up and look tougher than he really was, but only just managed to stand before he collapsed again. As what little pride he clung to faded, Herobrine wondered what in Minecraftia this human was thinking.

_'Trust him.'_ Herobrine heard one of the two prophet voices. 'Trust him! right! Because I know just how much humans love me!' He thought sarcastically.

_'… Trust this one.'_ The voice revised.

The human leaned down beside him and pulled Notch's sword out of his back. He passed out.


	4. Stupid Miner!

'You IDIOT! What the nether do you think you're doing?! He'll kill you! Would you invite a _normal_ mass murderer into your house? because dragging a pissed demigod home is a nether of a lot worse!' Steve scolded himself mentally as he laid Herobrine down on his bed, and did his best (as in not very well) to bandage the two stab wounds in the afore mentioned demigod's chest and abdomen. This task was made easier by the fact that he didn't have to worry about being attacked… as much.

Once he was done it seemed like a really good idea to get away from the scary demigod and do some miscellaneous junk to get his mind off the idea of being hunted. In a matter of seconds, Steve had fallen asleep on the floor, having gone without sleep for a full two nights in the mine.

* * *

Steve awoke to find himself in his own bed, and came to the conclusion that he had had a spider venom induced nightmare about rescuing Herobrine, meaning that he wasn't as big of a moron as he had thought. When he finally bothered to open his eyes the miner was greeted with the glowing white eyes of the demon from his 'dream', and shrieked as he fell out of bed. He stood up shakily. "Notch! you scared me." Steve said, immediately regretting his choice of words.

"Sorry, but, I'm the other one." Said Herobrine who was sitting with his back against the same wall Steve had fallen asleep at.

"R-right. Uh… how long have you been up?" Steve was less than sure of how he was supposed to react to the creep staring at him.

"Few hours."

"And, you put me in bed?"

"Yeah."

'You're very talkative aren't you?' Steve joked in his mind. "Right." now what? "So… are you, uh, ok?" He asked slowly.

"I'm fine, thanks for patching me up by the way. I was just wondering if you still had my shirt."

"Oh, uh, here." Steve moved over to a large chest in the corner. "You can have one of mine." He handed over a cyan t-shirt, identical to the one he was already wearing and the one Herobrine had been wearing, which was now torn and covered in blood.

"Thanks. I'll get out of your face then. Thanks again, see ya soon."

"Y-you will?" Steve had, like anyone else would in the same situation, no interest in seeing Herobrine ever again, much less soon.

"Whether I like it or not." And with that he left. Not left as in vanished, teleported, or crashed through the wall. Left as in walked out the door to the living room, and walked out another door to outside, and then walked away.

Steve decided that this had to have been the weirdest Herobrine encounter in the history of all man kind, and that perhaps it would have been a good idea to take his father's advice and attend church regularly… then again that would require living within pig riding distance of a church instead of out in the middle of nowhere.

* * *

Herobrine failed to notice that he had put his new shirt on backwards as he walked through the woods, too deep in thought to notice the tree in front of him until he waked into it. 'Man, I'm really out of it.' He thought, deciding to put at least a little attention to the block in front of his face.

That human had his face. They looked exactly alike, other than the eyes of course, but that had to mean something. The last time he had met a human with the same face as him it had spelled big trouble. But that human had been a hunter, specifically of endermen. This human had saved him about a day of healing. Probably not as much as it had expected, but a kind gesture nonetheless. So what could the prophets have in mind? Not like they would simply tell him, they never gave straight answers, ever. Herobrine sighed. "Who knows, maybe I'll end up better off than I am now. And I'm talking to myself again. Great Hero, people would think you're crazier than you already are if you could get within a ten chunk radius of civilization without causing mass panic or being mobbed- I'm still talking to myself." The demigod determinedly shut his mouth and rolled his eyes, a habit he never would have bothered to pick up had it not been for Notch's unique ability to see where his little brother was looking.

Silence came and Herobrine started talking to himself again to pass the time and lessen the feeling of loneliness. Mostly about how stupid he must be to think that a human could possibly be a good omen.

**A.N.: The prophet voices are basically just the blue and green text you get when you kill the ender dragon and go through the portal back to the overworld for the first time. Sorry this is so short, but the next chapter is already out.**


	5. To Shake The Devil's Hand

**A.N.: Uhg… I feel like a nervous wreck. I keep posting, reading, and deleting chapters when I realize I don't like part of the new version more than the old one. I think I'll have to keep better tabs on the old version if I want this to be really good. Please have patience with me.**

Steve started packing for another mining trip. This time he was determined to find more than just a few stacks of coal, so he would take his bed, four chests, a stack of oak logs, a new iron pick, and a stack of bread. Experience said that the bread would get really boring really fast, but he couldn't afford anything better at the current time due to inflation. Other than food, Steve knew that he could be fairly self sufficient in the mines. He gave his bed a hard kick, turning it into an item. Beneath the floating item was a chest, one that Steve had no memory of placing. He opened the chest, looking through it's inventory only to find every slot empty. Feeling disappointed, Steve nearly closed the chest again before an object at the bottom of the chest itself caught his eye. It was a little purple stone, framed in gold plate and hung on a gold chain. It was very pretty, and it looked magical. Most magic jewelry held either healing or protective properties, so it was a good idea to take it mining if you could get such a rare object. This miner had no idea what such a thing was doing under his bed, but what kind of broke, opportunistic teen wouldn't want a valuable looking enchanted necklace? With that in mind, Steve wore the chain around his neck to keep it safe until he could sell it.

* * *

Steve had been mining for a little while, and by mining standards that was about three days, when finally he saw the glint of diamond ore in the ground not far off. The miner started running towards his prize when, at the most perfect time imaginable, a creeper stepped out from behind a corner. Steve shrieked and ducked, shielding his face with his arms and... nothing. The creeper was just staring at him as though he was some kind of freak, only two blocks away... with the block of diamond ore right under him. 'Great...Hm...' The creeper hadn't exploded yet, so maybe it wouldn't. This was a lesson he had learned from spiders, but a gamble none the less.

So Steve walked up to the creeper and gave it a slight shove. The mob stepped off the block and continued to watch. So the diamond was mined without incident.

'That was wired…'

* * *

The rest of that expedition went well as Steve found three more diamonds, more assorted ores, and a dungeon with a zombie spawner, though the zombies left him alone.

Steve was mining around some bedrock when dumb luck stuck, and his pick met netherbrick.

'What?'

Steve had a short internal argument about whether to investigate, or turn tail and run.

'...Well... the worst that could happen is running into Herobrine... I guess.' and with that and a nervous chuckle, he broke the nether brick and found that it led into a large opening, obviously man-made but unlike any abandon structure Steve had ever seen. The walls of the eleven by eleven by eleven block room where lined with nether brick and the high ceiling was made of glow stone and various forms of quarts, with a streak of the luminous material running down the center of each wall and across the floor, in the middle of which they intersected. There was a massive nether portal that covered the north wall. As well as a tunnel, three blocks high and three blocks wide in the south wall, which was rimmed with glowstone.  
The style was obviously nether oriented, but the overall look was nice.

"Notch..." Steve stared in aw at the giant nether portal.

"You like it?" came a voice from behind him.

Steve whipped around to see who was speaking. "H-Herobrine!..."

"That would be me." The white eyed man approached. "They say lady luck is very fickle, but I think I'm her little play thing."

"I-I-I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean-"

Herobrine cut him off. " 'S'ok. I was kinda' wondering when you'd show up anyway. I just thought it would take a little more than just five days for you to wander your way down here."

"...What?"

"My luck's pretty stupid. I told you I'd see you again didn't I?"

Steve only shook his head. "If my mom knew I was on speaking terms with the infamous Herobrine she'd have my head... then she'd through it in a lava pit."

Herobrine chuckled. "Well, as fate would have it you showed up right on time. I'm having a bit of an issue with the overworld mobs." He scratched the back of his head and looked off to the side, but it was impossible for Steve to tell exactly where his pupil-less gaze fell. "No one's exactly happy with the current system of running under ground when the sun comes up, 'least not in the desert, but there's not much I can do about the lack of caves in the desert so I could use some help making structures." He held out his hand to offer the deal. "So how 'bout it. Wanna help?"

"What?! How the nether do you expect my help just like that? How can I know that I can trust you? and what makes you trust me?!" Steve immediately regretted the unceremonious rejection, but apparently Herobrine had a comeback for everything.

The demigod put his hands in his pockets. "Well I suppose you can't trust me for sure, but if I can't be trusted then why haven't I killed you? We both know I can and my reputation says I kill things just for the fun of it. So if I'm not to be trusted why have you trusted me so far."

Steve thought for a moment in search of a good defense. "Who ever said I trusted you..."

Herobrine laughed again "You're wearing the amulet I gave you and you thought it was a good idea to take me into your house because you thought I was dieing. If that's not some kind of baseline trust I'm not so sure what is. Why would I kill you if I want your help? Oh, and I can trust you because, well, I'm me."

The same subconscious feeling that Herobrine was not evil which had kicked in on seeing him and Notch fight said to help him build his mob homes in the desert. So Steve sighed "Fine. Why do I keep helping you?"

Herobrine grinned, and they shook hands to finalize the deal. "Great! Then I'll see you in the desert tomorrow." He turned around and began to walk off down the south tunnel.

"Wait which desert?" Steve called after Herobrine, who didn't bother stopping or even turning around.

"The one straight east of your house."

* * *

It took a surprisingly short span of time for Steve to find his way back up to the surface. 'Probably 'cause I used wool to leave a path this time instead of just torches. I'll have to keep that in mind.' But by the time he got back it was nearly midnight as the clock in the item frame told him. The exhausted miner flopped down on his bed the second he placed it, having been underground for over five days, the thought of getting up at the crack of dawn to build some kind of house wasn't very pleasant. But he was asleep in seconds.

* * *

The square sun rose and Steve awoke to the sound of a dieing skeleton on his roof. 'Hm... maybe I'll go to the nether soon and get some glow stone...' He contemplated making an automatic light system, one of the greatest things to come out of the redstone era.

The miner put all the ores and things he had gathered into chests and packed more food.

Though he had built his house, he was much better at breaking blocks than placing them, making the thought of spending Notch knows how long building in a desert all the worse. But no mater how bad of an idea it was to shake the devil's hand, it was an even worse idea to go back on such a promise.

So Steve packed his inventory with a bed, a stack of bread, three stacks of cobblestone, and some tools, and was off.

* * *

Herobrine had already set to work. He started by placing buckets of lava in a three by three pit one block deep that he had made. Once it was full of source lava he placed water next to the edge of the new lava pit. He mined the obsidian and did this again and again until Steve arrived. "Hay Steve! Sup?"

Being about twenty blocks away, Steve sprinted up to the demigod. "What do you need me to do?" He panted

"Think you could use this pit to make obsidian? There're lava buckets and picks in those chests." Herobrine gestured to a bunch of large chests a few blocks off.

"Yes sir." Being formal had seemed like the best course of action, until Herobrine corrected him.

"Aw c'mon, don't be so formal. My friends call me Hero."

"Oh... alright. " 'He has friends?'

"I can call you a friend right?" asked Herobrine, as though reading the human's mind.

"O-ok" Steve wasn't exactly sure what made them friends, but arguing with a greater being was _not_ on his agenda.

None the less, Herobrine seemed pleased. "Great! I'll work on the interior. We'll be building underground so I should get started on hollowing it out."

"Right."

* * *

As Herobrine dug through sand, sandstone, and then stone, he never stopped smiling. He had a new friend, a _human_ friend. "Take that Notch!" He knew his brother could hear him, despite the fact that he had only mumbled to himself.

To Herobrine it seemed as though the god always did one of two things. Ignore him, or try to make his eternal life harder, like in breaking the end portals. "You just love to torture me huh? Ya' jerk. "

Just then the clap of thunder filled the air and a bolt of lighting hit the ground only two blocks away from Herobrine.

Steve jumped and wheeled around from his obsidian to see the jagged white light. If the sky was clear, then how was there lighting?

Herobrine only shouted at the sky. "Oh shut up and get lost! If you weren't spying on me all the time you might have noticed that your favorite little parasites are trying to kill each other!"

...Silence...Which Steve broke. "What the nether was that?"

Herobrine out climbed of his deep, two by two hole. "Oh just Notch **being an ass**!" He shouted the last part at the sky.

More thunder but no lighting.

Herobrine ignored it. "There's a war farther east of here. Two clans of Notch's most devoted followers are at each other's throats over which daddy likes more." He sighed "To be honest I hate them both. One kills endermen just to get on my nerves, and the other's been hunting me for over a century. I know they can't kill me but they _have_ managed to get to me a few times." 'Why don't _I_ have any followers?' Humans had their many cults, but there was no Herobrine cult. And mobs tended to look at him more as a great and powerful humanoid who was nice and meant well, rather than the god he had once been. Even they all looked to Notch as god, well, all but the endermen that is.

Steve only then remembered just how old Herobrine had to be. Then he remembered the stories his mother had told him of the two god brothers of early Minecraftia.

* * *

"Alright Stevie, time for bed." The soft voice of a kind mother gave the news that the day was finally over.

"Mommy, tell me a bed time story." A much younger Steve crawled into bed

"Ok then, how about one about our father Notch.

"Yay!"

She giggled, "Settle down then. Well, before Minecraftia existed there was a place of endless darkness called the void. In the void there was only Notch, who got lonely in the emptiness. But after a long, long, llloooonnnnggg time, there was an other person. He was Herobrine."

Steve cringed. Herobrine's name alone had become something of a taboo.

"For a long time, Notch and Herobrine where happy together, but the void was still blank, so Notch built the world. First he made the blocks like dirt and stone and bedrock. They where both overjoyed, but the blocks didn't do much of anything, so Notch made the cows and sheep and chickens, and all the other mobs. Herobrine loved the world his brother had created and thought it was perfect, but Notch thought that more creatures would be better. So he created humans. Humans were Notch's greatest creation, they built great structures and they crafted all sorts of great things, and they built temples to worship Notch in. But he didn't stop there, Notch made a whole other dimension and called it the Nether. But Herobrine was jealous of Notch because the humans loved him so much." She paused for dramatic affect.

But Steve, being very young, was impatient "Then what? then what?!"

"So Herobrine started hunting people. He even tore down a whole Kingdome in one night. And he gave people nightmares."

Steve became visibly nervous. "Nightmares?"

"Oh, don't worry sweetie," She gently stroked the boy's hair. "Notch banished Herobrine to the nether when he saw how evil his brother had become. Herobrine can never come back to the overworld." She knew that if Herobrine _did_ exist he was still in the overworld in all likelihood, but there was no need to tell a toddler that.

This was a trick used to keep kids form venturing to the nether, one that worked well. There were countless other stories of Herobrine that went around to teach children lessons and keep them out of trouble. By the time most kids reached teendome they no longer believed in Herobrine, sometimes much earlier.

* * *

Steve now thought of this. "Hey Herobrine."

"Yea?"

"Are the stories about you true?"

"Well which ones? Do you know how many stories about me there are? Most of them aren't true, but a few of 'em are."

Steve made a tactful retelling of his mother's story.

"Well, the first part's true... Let's stop for lunch, I'm hungry."  
The two ate together on a sand ledge. It was strange, but overall pleasant.  
Eventually Herobrine spoke. "I was jealous... but I didn't kill anyone..." He looked a little sad.  
Steve didn't understand what the demigod could be going on about for a moment, but he soon remembered the last conversation they had had and put the statement into context.

"And Notch didn't create the nether, I did."

"What? how?"

"Don't forget, back then I was a god too."

'Past tense...'

"It took about a month, and by the time I was done I was too weak and tired to populate it." He sighed. "So Notch steps in all "I created humans so I must be the best thing in the world because they say I am!... my little brother's not good enough to make creatures of his own, to put in his world."... " He mocked dejectedly.  
Thunder again, and lightning.  
This seemed to upset the former god quite a bit. He stood up and screamed, "I said leave me alone! What? it's not enough for you stab me!? Now I can't even say I'm upset with you!? You're not better than me!" He paused for a moment, then spoke softly to no one, "Simon, take Steve home."  
And before Steve could say anything, an enderman popped up behind him, teleported the two of them to Steve's house, and was gone.

* * *

Herobrine waited quietly. He knew he was in for a fight and that he usually lost, but it didn't mater. He was sick of fuming quietly and never giving his all in fights anyway.

Notch himself appeared with his enchanted diamond sword.

Herobrine pulled one out as well, he liked iron more but now he was just miffed.  
Notch sighed. "Why do you insist on being punished brother?"

"Cause I just remembered why I don't like you." Herobrine was actually more interested in venting than fighting, but if he wasn't allowed to talk out his feelings, fighting was the next best thing. Really they fought more often than most people thought, but as both where immortal and neither could suffer permanent injuries it wasn't as big of a deal.  
Notch only sounded exasperated. "Fine. Then it would seem I must again show you your place." And with that he charged.

Herobrine dodged the first three strikes, the fourth came from above and was blocked. He through an ender pearl straight up, took out a bow and shot the ender pearl in mid air. Even as the arrow flew he equipped his sword again, and came down with enough force to instantly break both of their swords.  
Notch was surprised at his brother's pinpoint accuracy, but Herobrine's trick wasn't over yet. As his swords broke he equipped a diamond pickax and used the momentum he still carried to send it deep into his brother's shoulder. 'Crap, my aim was off; I wanted to hit his head.' He immediately abandoned the tool and jumped back, sprinting into the hole he had dug as a new plan formed in his mind.  
Notch stumbled backwards and pulled the pick out of his shoulder. It would be fully healed in an hour, but the shock was still there. In these fights Herobrine usually made a few worthless attacks, swinging his sword at a target he never hit and surviving only a few attacks himself. He rarely became so intuitive.  
Notch walked up to the spot were his brother had disappeared to find an empty hole only three blocks deep. Then he saw the trip wires inside it. "Thought you could trick me did you brother?"  
A voice behind him replied. "Yep."  
Notch spun around to see Herobrine a few block behind, with an active lever in front of him. Just then there was the muffled sound of an explosion and the sand under Notch fell, taking him with it and knocking him to the ground. Herobrine jumped into the new hole, head first, new sword in hand, and managed to stab the god in the chest. Again he ran, and again he left the weapon behind. Notch quickly stood up and removed the blade form his chest, then he jumped out of the pit like his brother had. He pounced and pinned Herobrine to the ground.  
Herobrine struggled to break free but was significantly weaker and could do nothing. Notch raised an other sword "This pointless struggle ends now!"  
Herobrine only grinned. "You talk too much." Notch felt something hit him in the back, and Herobrine was gone, there was a sudden weight on Notch's back and then a sword pierced his spine just below his neck. Notch fell and found that he could not move. Being a god he didn't die, but with his spinal cord cut the fight was over.  
Herobrine stepped off of Notch's back sat down next him to with a pleasant smile. "Well, I don't like fighting much but that did make me feel a lot better, so thanks." He smiled more brightly.  
Notch scowled but could not speak as his windpipe had also been cut.

Herobrine lay down with his hands behind his head and stared up at the sky. "Ya know, I'd say nicer things about you if you'd just be nicer to me. I mean, I _do_ protect humans as well as night mobs, and you _did_ butt in on my nether.  
'Sides you'll be fine, even if I cut you up you regenerate in, what? an hour? two? It takes me days to fully recover after a death blow."

Notch remembered the last time they had fought, a sword to the chest had taken Herobrine down immediately, the same injury had hardly slowed him down only moments ago.  
Herobrine's face fell. "What do you want any way? for me to act like you're perfect? or like you're my god?" He tuned to face Notch. "I mean, we're brothers right?"

Notch only scowled again, baring his teeth.

Herobrine gave him a sad look. "Guess not, hu?" He stood up. "Figures... Simon."

The enderman popped up again.

"Think you could take him home for me?"

"Do you want to go home too?" the enderman asked, concern evident in his ruff hiss of a voice.

"No, I'm fine thanks."

Simon could tell that his god (and personal friend) was sad, but he simply nodded and teleported away to the temple of Notch in the aether, with Notch tucked indignantly under his arm.  
Herobrine stood in silence for a moment. Then he sighed and set to fixing his hole.

**A.N.: Never let it be said that my fics don't have enough action. Notch Vs Herobrine twice in a week? that's not exactly what I'd call brotherly love. Tell me your thoughts on this, I love feedback.**


	6. Digging For Mobs

Notch lay in his bed as the enderman had left him. Never had he been so humiliated as losing so utterly and blatantly, and to _Herobrine_ none the less.

Already he had forgotten what his brother had said about being brothers.

'Was your fall from grace not enough to teach you better than to be so arrogant brother? Perhaps you will never learn. Then perhaps, your reign of terror upon my people shall end by my own hand.'

As he thought this, feeling began to return to his body.

* * *

Steve was exhausted from running by the time he made it back to the desert in which Herobrine was building. He went down the open shaft that doubled as a spiral staircase into a massive open cave, "He...ro...brine...What... the nether... was that... for?" He panted.

"Hm? Steve... your back..."

"Of course I'm back ... didn't think I'd ditch the almighty... Herobrine, did you?"

"I'm not almighty." He seemed more depressed than when Steve had left.

Simon listened as he mined more stone.

"You ok? you seem down."

"Naw, I'm fine."

Steve put his hands on his hips. "Hero, do you really consider me a friend?"

"Well, yea..."

"Well if I'm your friend you should tell me what's wrong. That's what friends are for right? so what's up?"

Herobrine smiled a little and his eyes seemed to glow a little brighter. "Why don't you hate me?"

Steve smiled back. "Innocent, until proven guilty. Now what's wrong?"

"Fine. But first grab a pick and start diggin'. Remember this place should be a stack box by the time the walls are filled in."

Steve equipped the diamond pickax he had used to mine obsidian with. "Are you avoiding something?"

"Other than more angry zombies? no." And he began to speak his mind. "Ok, I guess I'm just miffed that Notch's been playing god ever since I 'fell from grace'." Hero drew quotation marks in the air around his brother's words.

"But he is a god." Steve argued, starting to hack away at stone.

"Again, so was I. I don't even know what happened to me. Notch said one of his church groups got out of hand and used black magic to 'seal my soul' or something." He sighed. "I'm not even sure whether to believe him or not. It sounds like a bunch of nether water to me but it's the only story I've got right now so I might as well stick to it."

"Wait, so you don't remember at all?"

"Nope. But I _do_ know that the last person I met before then looked just like me, and here you come along with my face. You've got something to do with me, for better or worse."

Steve was about to protest that it was Hero who looked like him, when he remembered that Herobrine did indeed come first. "What makes you think that's not a coincident."

"Like I said, my luck is stupid. If you end up hanging out with me much longer you'll see _exactly _what I mean."

A third voice who had almost been forgotten piped in. "He's right. There used to be a temple devoted to the god brothers. One day a charged creeper got in and blew the place up. Only Notch's half remains."

Herobrine struck a block and let his pick rest there so that he could face palm with one hand on his hip. "Thank you Simon... I really needed to relive that." His voice was laced with sarcasm.

The enderman snickered. "Ah yes, did I mention that Hero was there? He was blown a hundred blocks away, into a wall."

"Ok for the record it was a super charged creeper."

"Do those even exist?" Steve asked.

Hero answered. "Imagine this: a creeper eats a stack of TNT and gets struck by lightning twice. Have _you_ ever been blown up like that? I'd like to see any one _not_ be shot across a biome by a super charged creeper!"

Simon laughed, Steve grinned, Herobrine pretended to be annoyed, and the somewhat unorthodox trio created a sixty-six by sixty-six by sixty-six cube by the end of the next day by working through the night.

As the moon rose on the second day of construction, a second enderman appeared. "Hero Sir." His voice held a certain urgency.

Herobrine did not turn around but replied, "What is it?"

"There's been an attack on the northerner stronghold by Notch's force."

"Crap!" Herobrine quickly shoved a pumpkin on his head and spun around, running to the new enderman. "Simon, you and Steve keep building." As he approached the messenger the two teleported away.

There was a pause as Simon and Steve watched the place the demigod had been. Then Simon spoke. "Steve, let me see your face."

Steve tried his best to look up at the enderman without actually looking at him.

"It's ok you can look at me."

The miner now really did look up at the creature, albeit, reluctantly. Simon wore a dark grey cloak, long enough to almost touch the ground, and stood about 2.8 or so blocks tall. His pitch-black hair was pulled into a tight pony-tail behind him that reached his ankles.

"Wow you really do look just like him! minus the glowing white eyes of course."

"Really?... do I now?..." The thought of looking exactly like the monster on every city's most wanted list was rather unsettling.

"Yes. He's probably right. You either signal his rise to power, or his ultimate demise."

"Why is that?" Steve knew this was a dumb question that probably had no answer, which is why he was surprised by the one he got.

"That's how the voices work. They're kind of like prophets, bringing about coincidences that signal one thing or another." Simon put a block of wool on the ground and sat on it.

'An enderman with an inventory?'

"Sometimes they even talk to people or push them to make certain decisions..."

Steve remebered the strange feeling that helping Herobrine was a good idea. Until that point he had simply dismissed the act of kindness as the result of a nasty cave spider bite from earlier.

"Hero's been on the losing end of things for a long time now and there's not much hope for his luck to change at this point. The strongholds have been under siege for decades and Hero doesn't have the ability to mend an end portal once its frame has been broken, not anymore at least. There are only three left in the world, and Notch's army has always been bigger than his."

"How big are the armies?"

"Every mob Notch is willing to draft vs. the handful of endermen who are willing to fight for their god and their home land." Simon shifted his gaze to his feet. "It's sad really. Hero's no match for Notch when it comes down to it. He's so much smarter and a much better person, but brains and morality won't win this war. We need a god to fight a god." He looked back up at the human before him, smiling slightly. "And if you're a good omen we might just find one..." His face fell again. " but if you're not... Notch will be the death of us all."

"O-oh." Steve suddenly felt extremely self-conscious, and apparently his face showed it.

"No it's not like that." Simon said quickly, holding up his massive hands in a "'no it's not like that' kind of way. "Just... I think you'll be good for Hero. He could really use another friend."

"Oh... Only human right?"

Simon smiled. They both knew that Herobrine was most definitely not human, but there was no other phrase that properly described the meaning of the statement. "Right." He stood up and gave the wool block a quick kick with his heel, turning the block into it's item form. "We should probably get to bed now. We've been at this for over 24 hours."

"Wait didn't Herobrine say to keep building?"

"Yes but he probably won't take his own advice. Knowing him he's passed out on the floor by now." Simon neglected to mention that the reason the demigod would have passed out was most likely for blood loss after throwing himself in front of a creeper or something else of equal intelligence. "Besides, even he knows that no one can sleep well with him around. We should rest while he's out."  
"I'm not sure I follow you."  
Simon glanced down at Steve. "Hero gives nightmares. He can't control it but any one sleeping in his presence has terrible nightmares."  
"Oh."

Simon placed two beds a little apart from each other and sat down on one. "He sleeps very little himself, since he has nightmares as well."  
That seemed like a good way to mess someone up. Sleep deprivation was a force most preferred not to recon with, but constant nightmares? 'Nights must be pretty lonely. It's amazing that he hasn't lost his mind.' Steve rationalized that sleepless centuries of being hated, hunted and alone could easily break any mortal man.  
Simon seemed to follow the miner's "cart of thought", but had no intention of stopping it. "Go to sleep, when day comes we'll all get back to work." And with that, the enderman lay down and curled up on his bed. Steve soon did the same.

* * *

Herobrine leaned up against a wall and slid down it, holding the gash in his side. He began to count in his mind. '35 dead, 78 injured.' He looked up at the small structure in front of him. 'The end portal frame survived but it's deactivated. Silver fish spawner: broken. All in all, could've been worse.' That said, he was in no way calling the battle won. "Ghaaa. Why can't he just leave me alone."

Just then Notch appeared. "How long did it take for my army to win brother?"

"Oh, about three hours." Herobrine decided that showing no signs of displeasure was the best way to get on Notch's nerves without risking a fight. "Why?"

"I merely wanted to know." Notch said through his teeth.

"I see you drafted this army. Is that really such a good idea?"

"I shall do what I will with what is mine." Notch turned towards the end portal frame.

"That may only work for so long. If you keep this up you might end up with an anarchy on your hands."

Notch said nothing.

"You know, I don't hate you. And I mean it when I say, no one likes a king who never puts the his cattle first."

"What?" Notch gave Herobrine a puzzled look

"It's an analogy ok? work with me here I've lost a lot of blood." And indeed he had.

The god only now noticed the pool of red forming around his brother. Then the deep wound in his side, most likely fatal, but whenever Herobrine was fatally injured he would die, but not despawn. After a day or so he would rise again, and usually end up getting himself killed again by the end of the next month.

"Only because you are reckless."

"Eh. I saved a few endermen, so I'm happy." He leaned his head back against the wall behind him and closed his snow white eyes.

"... This accursed gate way _will_ close eternally... one day." Said Notch, looking back to the end portal frame.

"One day... but sure as nether not by your hand..." The demigod mumbled.

"If it were not for your weak little spell of protection, it would be long since destroyed."

"Strong enough to keep you from touching it..."

Notch sighed. Talking would become a lost cause very soon judging by his brother's lack of enthusiasm. "... Rest well brother..."

This caught Herobrine's attention. "Um, thanks." Notch rarely wished him well in any way, shape, or form.

The god turned around and began to walk away.

Herobrine smiled a little before bleeding out and 'dieing'.

Notch stopped. Now was perfect, Herobrine couldn't fight and there were no endermen around. Now was his chance finish what he had started all those centuries ago, to end Herobrine once and for all. Notch turned back towards his brother. He looked so peaceful; nothing like the demon he could become… No, no, this was no way to end it. Notch wasn't about to play this one dirty, it was to important. Perhaps… perhaps Herobrine could still be changed, perhaps he wasn't a completely lost cause, perhaps he could be spared. Notch returned to the aether. 'Not this time brother, please, do not force my hand.'

**A.N.: Sorry this one's a little short. I'll get the next one out next week. But by all means, tell me your thoughts, and I'd be interested to hear what you think of my Notch.**


End file.
